Inkbird Heating or Cooling PID Temperature Controller IPB-16S Pre-Wired Digital Home Brewing Controller Independent Control Pump Thermostat

This review is on the new IPB-16S pre-wired Digital Home Brewing controller.I’ve looked at a number of drawings on doing a DIY for a PID controller but stayed away from the project because of not feeling comfortable in following the schematic drawings. So, when I saw the IPB-16S controller it appeared to be the solution to my need.Received the unit two days after ordering and was able to brew with it a couple of days later. What’s cool about the controller, it is definitely plug and play, the only modification I had to make was installing mounting screws and setting the mash temperature. The unit worked great maintaining the set temperature for my HERMS for home brewing. I have a small pump to recirculate the hot water in the HERMS and it was nice to have the pump control alongside the heat temperature control, very convenient.Would like if the input supported 20A @ 120V, with the higher amp rating I could also use to control one of my brew kettle DIY 2000-watt heat sticks. Once I set the mash temperature it maintained that set temperature for the hour log mash schedule, no hiccups and no chasing a temperature.The units fit and finish looks and feels great with a heavy-duty quality metal case, switch, two receptacles, electrical cord and temperature probe input. Overall the look and feel of the product is high-quality. The cord is very heavy duty measuring 42 inches.The unit is grounded, but I would like to see ground fault protection, if that’s possible, rather than have to plug it into a GFCI outlet for protection. The short cord or GFCI protection was not an issue for me because my 120v GFCI source is only a couple of feet away.I’m not sure if the probe is water proof, read somewhere that said that it is, and, in another post, it said it was not. During my BrewDay I did not have any issues with the probe submerged in water. If and when the included probe fails, I will purchase a probe that clearly states it’s water proof, but on the positive side the cord is 6 feet long.A great purchase and well recommended, saved me time and maybe money, if I were to build my own PID controller. Lastly, I own a couple other types of Inkbird controllers that I have purchased over the last few years and all are great quality and are all still working.

I've used quite a few different temperature controllers over the years to manage my fermentation temperature for homebrewing. I went through the usual suspects from Johnson and Ranco, and eventually built myself a PID temperature controller about 8 years ago or so. It works great, but cost somewhere around $50-$60 in parts and looks like a DIY project.At some point, I needed a temperature controller for my keezer, which didn't need to be as precise. I picked up an Inkbird ITC-310T that has served admirably for the task.Now, I have a lagering freezer in addition to a chest freezer (keezer). That means I needed (wanted) another PID controller, and I didn't really feel like building one from scratch, so I sought something cleaner.Enter the Inkbird IPB-16. Based on my good experience with the ITC-310T, I ordered one. It looks great and functions excellently. If you care about fermentation temperature control for your homebrewing, this is the one to get.It has all of the usual awesome stuff that PID controllers have, such as auto-tuning for your system to avoid overshoot. One nice thing is that I can actually understand the instructions. It's not perfect English, but my other controller (JLD614) has miserably confusing instructions that took me ages to fully understand.With my IPB-16, I'm putting it through the paces with a glycol chiller and a Brewers Hardware jacketed conical fermentor. It's doing an outstanding job of holding temps even prior to self tuning.The only negative thing I have to say about it is that it doesn't come with a waterproof thermal probe. At the price and for the purposes it's going to be used for, it should. I've decided not to reduce my rating by 1 star since I don't actually need a waterproof probe with my thermowell (though I'll likely buy one anyway).Highly recommended!

I used it with great success 3 times in my 7.9 gallon stainless milk can still until the probe broke. It really is simple to use and works fine. I never had one single problem until the probe broke. And when I say it broke, it didnt snap in half, thats a simple fix on my own, my probe burst at the end that reads the temp.Looking for a replacement probe was a nightmare! I looked all over the net for almost 2 months before finally finding one, while not being able to brew. The online company where I found them had 3 and I bought them ALL! So just a heads up if you break your probe or it burst like mine, its gonna be a $130 friggen paperweight until you find a probe! I dont ever wanna go through that again. Inkbird? More like stinkbird if your probe breaks.Another thing, I dont get people knocking it because it only runs up to a 1650 watt element? If you wanted something to run a bigger element then why would you buy this??? It CLEARLY says in the add that it only runs up to a 1650 watt element. Makes NO SINCE!Good Luck all and I hope this works for you. If anyone has any questions shoot them my way I'd be more than happy to help!